Indian captain Virat Kohli was left rather annoyed after Sri Lanka players complained about air quality, which lead to multiple delays in play during the post-lunch session, at Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday.
The play was halted for 17 minutes after lunch as the visiting players, led by skipper Dinesh Chandimal, wanted to leave the field of play complaining of severe pollution. The Lankans were seen wearing anti-pollution masks during the post-lunch session. The play was halted between 12:32 pm to 12:49 pm after which the umpires and match referee David Boon convinced them to continue.
However, there was another stoppage of play in the 127th over when Lakmal walked off the field after bowling the fifth ball. The umpires once again got together, chatting with Chandimal and Angelo Mathews. Sri Lanka manager Asanka Gurusinha and India coach Ravi Shastri also joined in.
Dilruwan Perera finished the over and Sandakan bowled the next before Chandimal stopped play because there were only 10 Sri Lankans on the field. Unhappy with the multiple stoppages in play, Kohli decided to declare India’s first innings at 536/7d. Kohli’s declaration signal clearly communicated his displeasure about the events during the second session of play.
Soon after the declaration came, the opposition players were seen relieved as Lakshan Sandakan and Niroshan Dickwella burst out laughing. The scenes didn’t look good sportingly as they were complaining of the pollution for a long time and were seen laughing after the innings was declared. While it could be with the relief that they were finally going to get some rest, but the actions of the visitors would be surely questioned later in the game.
Strikingly, Indians were absolutely comfortable in the field and completed the required quota of the overs to be bowled and no player was seen wearing the protective masks on the field.
Here are the videos of Sandakan and Dickwella laughing:
https://twitter.com/CricketKaVideos/status/937236541931261952
Innings break! India declare their innings on 536/7.
Updates – https://t.co/OKFOpkiBg9 #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/jRzygy50g4
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 3, 2017
